New tax-exemption law cuts BIR’s 2015 collection goal to P1.674T

Recent government moves that would let workers take home more pay have prompted the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to slash its 2015 collection goal twice already, with the agency now seeing only P1.674 trillion in tax collections this year from P1.721 trillion originally.

As President Aquino has signed into law the higher tax-exemption cap of P82,000 on 13th-month pay, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said in a text message that the agency’s revenue target for this year will again go down by P26-30 billion.

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Last month, the BIR reduced its 2015 collection target to P1.704 trillion, citing the P16.9 billion in foregone revenues from the expanded exemption on workers’ de minimis benefits gained from collective bargaining agreement and productivity bonuses, as ordered by the Department of Labor and Employment in December.

Henares said the BIR will wait for the new tax-exemption law to be published before the agency and the Department of Finance shall draft and come out with its implementing guidelines.

Under Revenue Memorandum Order No. 4-2015 issued by Henares on Feb. 5, she ordered that P1.024 trillion or three-fifths of the earlier P1.704-trillion tax collection target for 2015 must be sourced from taxes on net income and profits.

While Henares had said that the BIR likely missed its 2014 collection target, the latest Department of Finance data showed that the agency’s collections worth P1.220 trillion as of end-November last year already slightly exceeded the P1.217 trillion collected in 2013.

For this year, Henares had given marching orders that the BIR implement 27 priority programs to shore up collection.

Among the priority programs earlier identified by Henares for implementation in 2015 is the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System for alcohol products and distilled spirits. This would entail affixing tax stamps on liquor, similar to an ongoing program on tobacco, “to ensure the collection of correct excise taxes on alcohol products” under the Sin Tax Reform Law.

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